Lessons

Lesson Info

Day 28: Charitable Events: Give & Get Day

Day twenty eight is going to be about charitable events and how you can make them different from your special events that you're doing in the studio where we're going to do the same, what we're going to do differently and other ways that you can do and be involved in charity other than your you know, your regular special events that you're doing in the studio let's go through those and I like to call our charitable event session I like to call our charitable events and thinking about charitable events, thinking about giving as a given get thing, you know, I want to be able to give as much as possible that's just part of who I am and it's part of me being fulfilled and fulfillment is one of the goals that I want to sight set and being able to give and, you know, being able to do those things that are important to me, you know, that's, that's, something that I have to do, it's not a choice for me anymore, and so, you know, I was I believe that to give a lot we have to make a lot and so e...

ven in our studio of ants or studio charitable events, I want to be able to give, but I also need to be a business person and I need to be profitable as well. And so I want to think about it in that way we're still planning it so that we could be profitable is a business but be able to give a lot to charity and so over the years we've been able to do that and a couple things just as you get going and thinking about this you know, first select a charity you know, is there something that is important and special to you? You know, I uh for many years raised money pretty heavily for the leukemia lymphoma society and it became important to me back in I guess two thousand two thousand one was when we first started doing a calendar in a campaign for them and I didn't have a charity that was important to me at the time but I knew that I wanted to do something to give back and I wanted to do something to give back as a business and a studio and so I took it to my staff and just said I'm committing to making sure that were, you know, doing something I'm doing something to give back and I don't know what it's going to be but I you know, I want to do something and I don't know who it's going to be four but I just wantto us you know I want to commit to you guys and I'm just a few days after that happened my office manager's niece was diagnosed with leukemia and, you know, and I really, really believe that when your heart is ready, you are given what you're ready for, and I was ready to be able to be giver and, you know, how have those opportunities and and what I found over the years is and now I have my own charity and I was still in very involved in leukemia lymphoma society, and we'll talk a little about auctions and how you gonna stay involved in those things? But I have gone to a more and with sandra more, we are in ecuador every few months, and just this summer opened up our own orphanage and so that's been really, really special and t a has been to ecuador with me, so she knows all about that you guys can chat with her about that. So is kelly, who was here yesterday and it's just it's it's such a special thing to be in be able to be involved in children's lives and being able to give back and being in ecuador I know has touched so many people, everybody who's gone along, I mean, lives there just changed it's just it's a different thing, there is a different world, and I'm starting our own orphanage with something that was something important to me than the very first time that I went there no, I was really struck by what was happening with boys that once I got to a certain age, you know, maybe twelve maybe thirteen as soon as they started maturing they're no longer welcome in the orphanage and you know, this is where they grew up, they've been abandoned by a parent and then all of a sudden they start turning into young man men and they don't want them around the children anymore and just culturally that's the way it goes most of these kids have been abused in some way and it's just, you know, and it's it's not like they turned twelve and all of a sudden there a risk they've been a risk all this time and now they're kicked out, you know, and their kids without fathers they're kids without ah home you know, people care about them sorry um but, you know, wi I knew the first time that I went there and I started the organization with another photographer travis gugelmin on and, you know, we both just said after that first time, you know, this is so important to us that we do something to help these boys that was kind of are the age we love all the little ones and that you know it's so fun to be able to be there and help the little ones and we've done so much for food and buildings and we've hired social workers and psychologists and english teachers and computer teachers and all the things we've done such amazing things with the help of our photography community and friends but uh one of the things that was important to us we both were just really struck by this age and we both have boys and we just said, you know, at some point we want to make sure that this is something that we are helping to make a difference in this this age group and so this year was when it presented it itself to us and we had a couple of boys run away ah, that were important to us they get kicked out of the orphanage at a certain age and the only place for them to go is like an adult home and usually that's a rehabilitation center there's you know, drug a drug abuse people and there's you know, alcoholics and their sex offenders and you know, all these things are in this place and you sure they're trying to rehabilitate or supposedly, you know, some of them are there just because they need a place to lay their heads and they need something to eat and then they're sending our boys you know, to this place and so most of them either end up back on the streets, you know, running away or they end up, you know, even worse you know, there's just this is not a good thing and so this summer a couple of our boys ran away and we found out about it and just I mean I won't go into the whole story but I will tell you that miracle after miracle happened and we found the right people the right couple we found a house travis and I flew their emergency trip to find these boys in kito ecuador how do you find two kids and we found them we were able to find birth papers for them which is was another just absolute miracle. Um we found this couple who we had known for three years for almost four years of being in ecuador who are willing to come and run the house for us we had an american man young man who was willing to commit a year of being at the home to be our intermediate person and this all happened in a week's time so total god thing you know, it just wouldn't happen otherwise but way started an orphanage and uh so I didn't even mean atomic whole story but uh that's don do one more and you could definitely find out more adana amore dot or ge if you need a charity, we love free to check us out and we'd love to help you is fundraising if you're interested in doing that so that information is all there for you, and now I'm going to move on and give you a little bit more information about doing something charitable in your own studio. There's lots of ways to be involved. Auctions, raffles, fundraisers about your sale. And what about your sail is, is I offer many, many times teo, an organization who comes to the studio or calls and says, do you have something that you can donate? They're, you know, certain auctions that I want to donate a high value high end package, too, because I know my right target client is going to be there, but then there's others that I want to give something to. But I know it's probably not gonna be my target client, and so what I do for them is I give them five or I give them ten gift cards and those gift cards are worth one hundred fifty dollars in my studio. Then I let them sell them basically for a donation of one hundred dollars. So for one hundred dollars, to the organization, they get one hundred fifty dollars gift card to the studio. I rarely get back more than two it's, usually one or none. Which is flying with me that's great what I've done is I've said yes to the charity I've helped raise money for them and if I give them five they've raised five hundred dollars if I could give them ten they raise ten thousand dollars or one thousand dollars yes make that through but you know but in these charities are very very grateful and they always sell them and usually I think some of them are even just giving them to people you know you gave us a one hundred dollar donation here's this for you it's that given get thing but I look good I can you know say yes and you know the one or two at tops that might come into me you know I can work through the process and let them know how things go and yes, they can come and use that one hundred fifty dollars gift card and that's great one hundred fifty dollars in my in my studio is about half of the session fee or in eight by ten so either way it's not getting them much but it does do a lot for the organization and so it's a win win all the way around so that's what that means auctions in general are something that I love being a part of high end auctions and there's a few that I will continue to be involved in like the leukemia lymphoma society where it's one hundred fifty dollars a plate to come into their their auction there. They called man woman of the year event where they have men and women that are running for man and woman of the year. And what that means is I've raised the most money, so iran for woman of the year one year for leukemia, lymphoma society and I got second place, but I raise lots of money for them. That year, I raised thirty five thousand dollars with a studio event in my in my studio and so really cool thing, I definitely want to keep being involved in their auction and a couple things with auctions, I don't want to be on the silent auction that's not really an option for me if I do, I want it to be something like a cute wild survey frame ornament and not anything that has to do with my studio. I'm just giving okay and my name's out there, but if I'm going to be involved in the auction, I want to be talked about, and I want to be a part of that high end auction, and so I first of all, ask them what they're beginning sponsorship levels are, and normally they're going to start it either a thousand dollars or fifteen hundred dollars, so that's, where I'm going put in my donation so I can be a part of that live auction and I can become a sponsor I'm gonna have time in their program sometimes in a slideshow that's going to run during the event and I always always want to ask them what else I can do for them so how can I be of service? Can I I'll even go photograph in event if it's a high end event and my right client is there and that's okay but I want to be involved in that way a couple of other things is those high end auctions always have a guest speaker and I always want to find out who that guest speaker speaker is and if I can photograph them on behalf of the charity and so for example I will call the speaker that's coming in for, uh for the auction and I'll let them know you know my name's laurie norris time I'm a photographer I work closely with the leukemia lymphoma society and I would love to be able to photograph you on behalf of l s and we'll have your portrait display there at the event where you're gonna be speaking and so I will give that speaker you know I give them the experience I don't charge him anything I will photograph them I want a canvas or a nice frame print on an easel and I give that to that speaker and the reason after the event and the reason is is because I know that if I have photographed that speaker who everybody in this place knows you know there's five hundred people here who have paid one hundred fifty dollars to sit down and here the speaker speak basically or there for that auction they're spending lots of money and it is worth it to me to invest a couple hundred dollars and a canvas or a framed print so that I can have my name you know connected to that speaker everybody who walks by knows who that is and they're going to know who photographed them and so that's one thing and then I also crazy as it may sound I want to find out who the auctioneer is and if I can I'm gonna photograph the auctioneer's family and what I have found is that if I can photograph the auctioneer's family and give him the experience of working with me the introduction of my package as it comes up is completely different than if he has no idea why someone would spend fifteen hundred dollars or whatever my packages on photography that doesn't make sense to a lot of auctioneer you know they're going to be gone you're right you know can we start this at one hundred dollars but if I could give them the experience and they talk about in a completely different way and it becomes a new thing, and I've had I've had auctions over and over that I have worked with the auctioneer in my my package has gone well over whatever I haven't priced at, so, um, so that's something that's very valuable as well, um, you can host a fundraiser in your studio and I'll talk to you a little bit about that, even if you're not going to do what I do with the sessions in the voting in the calendar and we'll walk through that. But even if you do, if you know if you don't do that, you can host something for somebody else. You can be a toy drop off, you can be, you know, a canned goods drop by drop off you could be any of those things, and if you don't have a space, you can team up with somebody else you can tie in together and you can mark it out to your people, let people know that you're giving back there's very easy ways to do that and then having those special events bras for causes something that I hosted in my studio uh, last year and just gave them the space you know, here's my space, you can show off your they decorate bras and auction them off and a kind of fun, but, you know, we just hosted the space for that this was a toy drop off that we did every person who dropped off a rap toy at the studio got a fifty dollar gift card to come back we got in maybe fifteen twenty percent of those cards back that's okay, we just want to have our name out there we want people to know that we know that we care there were a studio that is giving back and then I've talked to you guys about the halloween sessions you got to see that those we just we either pick a little local charity or you know donal more or whatever and, you know, raise a few hundred dollars for that and then the studio fund raiser is our big thing and when we do our studio fundraiser it does result in a calendar that we're doing and the very first thing with that is I want to develop a campaign we have talked about developing an entire campaign we're thinking about these marketing campaigns that were doing it so I want to think about it from start to finish I wantto know I want to choose my charity I want to choose a theme we do end up with a calendar that goes out and we do voting for the calendar and that's the way we really raise the most money for our charity is we charge one hundred dollar donation per child for the session fee that all goes to charity and then we I put my favorite image of every single child online for voting boning is a dollar a vote and parents campaign for their kids to be in the calendar and the top twelve fundraisers get their kids in the calendar the top top one gets the cover and so there's thirteen kids that get in the calendar and these parents will fight for their kids to be in the calendar and fight for them to be on the cover so we do voting and do all these things and get people involved in fundraising for us you know, now they're all out doing their own little fundraising campaigns and the year that I raised the thirty five thousand dollars for looking in the form of society almost all of that was voting you know, just getting people involved in getting them excited about um you know, campaigning out for their kids so we want to think about a brandon theme for me I want it to be something you know different and when I started with little angels I did that because I'm not a prop see person and I liked the idea of little angels but I would never do that in my studio on a you know, everyday thing and so I chose little angels as the brand and theme we developed a logo for the events and it's what we still use today it's something that's just simple and clean and kind of our thing special pricing, definitely with those packages, specialty products and of course, that's the way the studio makes the money is with the packages that we sell. So the front those the charity gets money from the sessions from the voting from the calendar sales, isa studio make money by selling packages and products to the clients, so specialty products uh, we're going to play in the marketing. We're going to plan partnerships for this. I very rarely shoot my little angel sessions in my studio. I am almost always tied with another business, and the reason that I do that is because I want to have the power of that other business when I am marketing, and so I'll show you guys, our press release in a little bit when I'm sending out a press release, whether it's radio or tv or a newspaper or a magazine when I'm sending out those press releases and now even to other businesses, blog's and, uh, you know, newsletters, but when I'm sending those out, I want the power of having another business name on my press release or when I'm calling somebody calling somebody from the media, I want to say, you know, I've done it at jewelry stores, banks, car dealerships, I don't care what it is if they have a presence in the media I'm going after that person they're going to be my partner in this and what's great is all they have to do is they have to give me a location and they have to help me get the word out and then I'm gonna use them and I'm gonna use their name to have more power for the event and so we're we're looking at that and the the press release says such and such car dealership and warren or some studio present little angels two thousand fourteen and so that just really helps in the marketing I told you guys how we raise money and then we always want to think through public relations how we're going to get the word out so a couple of specialty products we've got things temple it'd you know, little albums according and albums there's an image box there there's a canvas we are still selling some high end items with these things are packages for little angels I think um I want to say the bottom one is three eighty and they go up to about twelve hundred dollars I'm not exactly sure on that, but we do have we have templates available that have all these pieces in it all the marketing all the uh you know the all the products, everything, the voting letter, how to do it it's all there and that's available normally and I thought about this morning this this morning and normally we have those available on the donna more website and it's one hundred fifty dollar donation to the charity and you get all those templates and you don't have to do it for da no more of course I would love you to, but you can you know you could do it for another charity do itfor another organization, you can change the theme, you can do anything, they're all layer templates that you can change up. Excuse me, but, um, I decided this morning that if you are interested with any dollar amount donation, you can go and donate on down to a more send me your receipt to lorien nordstrom photo and give you my email address, which, uh I'm blasting that out there but it's laureate, norsemen, photo dot com and whatever you can afford, if you are interested in donating, I will send you those templates so it's going to be the complete campaign templates everything we do for that and I just want encourage you that whatever you know, whatever you're feeling, you know, if whether it's five dollars, twenty five dollars it was one hundred fifty dollars that's awesome, but whatever you can give today, if you'll donate and send me a receipt, I'm going to send you all those templates ho press releases next on that and this is actually what you guys are going to get today is your template download it is in that set if you go and donate but you're going to get this part for free either way and this gives you the wording to get the word out to the media and I've been very fortunate with this to be able tio be on the news and be on the radio and be published in newspapers and magazines as a result of doing these events and you know it it takes work, you know, it's putting a plan in place and saying ok, these are, you know, thinking about it as a campaign campaign in the beginning and the social media is part of that and media exposure is part of that and planning out how we're going to make that happen and so making that contact and staying in front of those people and, you know, getting on the news and there was many years there where I was like they're gonna be so sick of this little angel campaign because we're on the news every single year with it and so but you can make that happen and of course that's good for the studio you know, that's part of the given get out of all this and I really do believe that the more we give, the more we receive and that's just that's just part of how this whole thing works, you know? So your studio can prosper in that way as well. Another thing that happens when you start getting involved at a level like that and you're doing something year after year, and I actually have seen studios and of help studios even their first year, they're getting on the news because of just, you know, kind of following the plan and making things happen, but you're also going to start, you know, once you get involved and people see you raising money and being involved in doing things you know, for your community or for a charity, you're going to start being asked to be to give presentations and to be in front of people, and I think that has been a huge value for my studio that, you know, people do what they want to here, and they want to be given an opportunity to give, and I have found that for sure with onto a more over the last couple years that there's so many people who are so thankful just for the opportunity to be able to give in some way and a lot of times, we just don't know how until we're asked and it's a very hard thing for us as human beings to learn to ask. I know it is for me I mean, I have had a chip on my shoulder for so long, you know? I'm gonna do this by myself, I can make this happen and I don't need anybody and, you know, I mean, I lived that way for many, many years, I could do everything on my own and, you know, it's a hard thing to learn to ask, but I've learned that by asking for things and, you know, you just don't know who you're going to bless and so, you know, think about that as you're thinking about getting involved and, um, really working through all that, so so that's don no more, and I would like the opportunity to be able to share another story with you. Um, julia here, my friend, um, I actually met amalia, what, ten years ago twelve years ago and didn't know this until we got here till I got here, but malia shared her story with me um, just today and I just said, you know what? I need you to share this with people if you're willing and let's see how I can handle this, but, um and I'll let molly is here in her words, but she has really, really been through a lot, and I so, so respect the choices that you've made and where you are now, and I just wanted to give you the opportunity to share with other people because I know that you are going to bless someone else by sharing your story. So my name is malia anise and I am in the midst of creating random sunshine photography, but more importantly, I'm starting toe launch random sunshine campaign and random sunshine is the name I gave my daughter and part of the reason it has taken me ten years to create this business is because not once but twice my life has been affected by an unplanned pregnancy and for me, due to dilek where I was in life and the lack of family support, I chose an open adoption and that was a very great option for me. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but for me that was my choice, but due to the lack of resource is and the lack of support during and after my pregnancy, it really emotionally and financially derail my life and so I'm still not given up and I'm still working on creating my business and not only is this business going to be a way of life for me, but part of the the money that I make with my business is going towards creating a campaign where I don't know all the pieces yet. But I I want to create sport for these girls who find themselves in this situation, and I want to put together resource is during and after your pregnancy, and so if pregnancy, unplanned pregnancy or adoption has affected your life and you want to talk about it, email me. Um, if you are interested in helping me with just cause, um, then you want to talk further about it, please e mail me and you can contact me at random sunshine campaign at gmail dot com um, just over lunch, he created the e mail and the facebook page. So tomorrow there will be a facebook page under random sunshine. Um, or just look me up, malia and us m e l e a h last name e and and I asked, and I just want you to know that you're not alone and that you could do this. Thank you. And thank you, malaya. And only enough. Laurie actually photographed me while I was pregnant ten, twelve years ago kind of kind of crazy and, you know, and I told malia today when she was sharing this with me, and, um, I can't believe you did that without crying I'm over here, I can't even hardly contain myself, but you know I mean she was here for a reason and you know and and I feel like part of that reason was so that she could share that and that is it's not an easy thing to share and you know, to be able to be open and you know, I respect the fact that you chose life for your child and I I respect the option that you gave your child to have a better life and adoption is definitely touched me through donna wilmore and threw my kids in ecuador and several really really respect that and you know, thinking about what girls are going through here every single day and what you've been through and you know and what million was telling me was that you know, there's so much support through making the decision and she's working with an agency and there behind her and you get through it and then six weeks later it's done and the paperwork sign and your baby's gone and she was there's nothing you know you're left with no support and everybody walks away everybody's done everybody's given up on you and you're starting over with no support and so I really appreciate that you're willing to give that support and and start thinking about all the different options that are available to you for for doing that so that also you know, I wanted to share that while of course don to amore is so narrow dear to me and I want to do everything I can even tow, you know, encourage whoever is out there that wants to be a part of it. Come on a trip with me fundraise you know, get in there and make a donation and get your free templates. You know, whatever it is for you, there also may be a charity organization that is near and dear to you and take the opportunity to be a ble teo, you know, not only work for him, bless the people involved in that charity, but anybody else that you can come into contact with you that could be blessed by your story. And I have certainly been blessed by your story today. And I thank you for sharing that. I know other people have been less tas. Well, oh hoo! I just want teo say that the worldwide audience is also very supportive of you, malia. And there definitely are tears out there, but we have drop the information in the chat rooms about where people can can reach out to you as well. So thank you. Thank you. And you all right, everybody. S o this is the end of day twenty eight to the end and, uh, I'm glad I was only a basket case while she was talking and not the whole entire time today's download as a press release and you can uh that'll be you know it's it's another layered psd file we go in and you know change the info for yourself dropping your image dropping your campaign logo whatever you need to do but it's gonna help you out with some of the wording on that and then I'm gonna go back just one more slide so you can see where to go for those templates if you do want to make a donation and any amount and I will not judge you if you e mailed me and it's five dollars five dollars we'll help and, uh you know so five dollars whatever you khun d'oh don no more doubt or go to the donate page and just click on the very first button that's gonna allow you to donate in any amount and send me that receipt I'll send you your templates just a clarification question some folks are very interested in finding out more about down tto dando amore on dh carina d photography because you did talk about opening an orphanage as congratulations way we're talking about this last night and I just it's an amazing thing that you are doing on dso carnegie photos wondering if the children at dondo amore are adoptable I know in some countries they're closed to adoptions so is and and it's you know that question is yes some of them are in ecuador you have tohave abandonment papers signed from the parents which is so so hard and you know, the culture there is you know I can't take care of my child so in orphanage ken and many many times the mom's really believe they're coming back for their children someday and you know so once I get to a certain age if they have not had abandonment papers signed then it's very very hard to of course get them adopted however we do have one little boy in our home who uh a couple came actually a whole family came they've got five of their own kids and they all came to ecuador on a trip with us and fell in love with a boy and in ecuador the max age once I turned sixteen they're no longer adoptable and of course at that age they're not usually nobody wants him anyway you know, I mean sad but true and uh this family came and they fell in love with ignacio and I'll say his name but and they decided that this is what they wanted to dio adoption there is a very, very expensive and it takes a very, very long time and so it has been another thing and you guys can follow more of the story on either travis is facebook page, travis gugelmin or my facebook page but we're telling the story there there's so much that's going on right now a lot has been involved. We sent people to find his birth mother, which is like needle in a haystack you guys and god took us there. I mean, we we were able to find his birth mother and we're in the process right now of working through the courts very, very close to the to the point where the family can go back and be with him. They'll be there with him for four weeks and ecuador before they can bring him home, but we've been working, working, working, working, trying to make it happen before he turned sixteen and so that's all happening right now. Um, other kids, you know, it just depends, the process is long and hard and, you know, it started as a good thing it started because of the child trafficking there, and because of that, they made a lot of lot of strict rules about adoption and that parks that part makes sense, but it's also very heartbreaking to know that there's people out there who would it off these kids if if it was available, but we're working really hard to make a lot of that happened we've we've had through don to, um, or another little down syndrome girl that was adopted and there's also a brother and sister who are currently we're in the process of making sure we actually had a family who decided that they needed these kids to stay together they came on a trip and met both of the kids they're a different orphanages they decided they wanted them to be together that that was what they were given and they went home and they committed tio paying every expense for these two kids to be adopted and stay together and brought back here or stay there I mean, it could have happened that way but they came home and you know and the miracle was it's probably gonna cost him about a hundred thousand dollars before it's all said and done for these two kids but the miracle was I got home and they really felt like we know we want to do this we know this is so important we will pay for somebody to do this but who's going to adopt an eleven year old girl and a fourteen year old boy that they've never met and they put it out there to their community and to their church and said if you are interested in this if you would take these two children apply you gotta put in an application tell us why you want them and why you're the right family for them and they got sixteen families that sent it back and I mean it was just it meant so much to us to know that there are people who are so willing, teo, you know to give and teo help make these kid's lives better, and a lot of times, it is just financial, you know. And so that's. Part of what donna one warm wants to do in the future is to be ableto help fund adoptions and help people. Um, you know how people help save lives.